Beijing - A Chinese passenger jet, Airbus A319-115 jet, caught fire upon takeoff in western China on Thursday morning. The airliner belonging to Tibet Airlines had 113 passengers and nine flight crew onboard.

All passengers and crew were safely evacuated with some taken to a hospital with minor injuries, the airlines said in a statement

Tibet Airlines said it happened at 8:09 a.m. (0009 GMT) as the flight to the city of Nyingchi in the Tibetan Autonomous Region was preparing to take off from the western city of Chongqing. The plane itself had fire damage.

“In the process of taking off, the flight crew discovered an abnormality with the aircraft and stopped the takeoff, after which the aircraft left the runway,” the statement said.

The incident follows the crash of a Chinese Eastern Boeing 737-800 in southeastern China on March 21 in which all 132 people on board were killed.